Funding of individual further education by Austrian Bundesländer

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The nine Austrian Regions (Bundesländer) provide further education grants for adults. These grants represent a significant part of the public investment in adult learning for employed on regional level (beyond funding within the active labour market policy). The amounts of funding available and the criteria for eligible groups and educational programs differ widely between Regions. For groups enjoying preferential treatment (for example, low qualified adults) and for particular educational programmes (for example, preparation courses for the final apprenticeship examination), funding up EUR 3 700 and up to 100 per cent of the course fees is available in some Regions. Available support is much more generous in some Regions (for example, Vienna or Upper Austria) than in others. While the Regions’ role in co-funding adult learning has become a stable feature of the institutional landscape since the mid of the 1990ies, individual funding schemes are subject to frequent changes. Various data bases are available informing on the currently available support schemes (www.kursfoerderung.at). There is no regular statistical reporting available; according to the latest available estimate, around 45 000 adults benefit from the support schemes by the Austrian Regions each year, receiving public co-funding of an estimated EUR 40 million.